Session Information
| Title | Racism, Sexism, and Video Games: Social Justice Campaigns and the Struggle for Gamer Identity |
| Presenter(s) |
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| Time | Wednesday, October 15, 6:00p-8:00p |
| Location | Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center Room Big Ten B |
| Format | Pre-conference Talk |
| Description | If you are looking for something to do Wednesday evening, the Quello Center is hosting their annual lecture, featuring Lisa Nakamura.
6:00pm: Coffee, tea and light refreshments 7:00pm: Lecture 8:00pm: Drinks and reception The identity of the video gamer as young, straight, white, and male is changing to reflect a more diverse group of users, but this transition has been accompanied by struggle and conflict. This August, gaming journalist Leigh Alexander declared that "'Gamers' are over," but women and minorities still face significant harassment from other players in pseudonymous multiplayer environments. This talk will analyze how social media platforms such as Tumblr.com, a site that is particularly popular with women, have been successfully deployed by so-called "social justice warriors" to bring awareness to this problem by publicizing egregious examples of sexist and racist harassment suffered by female gamers and gamers of color. The popularity of sites like Fatuglyorslutty.com and StraightWhiteBoysTexting.tumblr.com force us to consider how we must balance privacy and accountability in a pseudonymous social media ecosystem. Complete details on the lecture, including directions how to get there, are available on the Quello Center site. NOTE: This event is within walking distance of the Marriott and MSU Union. It will likely take you less than 15 minutes to walk from the Marriott or MSU Union. Event sponsor is the Quello Center at Michigan State University. |
Lisa Nakamura is the Gwendolyn Calvert Baker Collegiate Professor of American Cultures and Screen Arts and Cultures at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is the author of Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet (University of Minnesota Press: winner of the Asian American Studies Association 2010 book award in cultural studies), Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity and Identity on the Internet (Routledge, 2002) and co-editor of Race in Cyberspace (Routledge, 2000) and Race After the Internet (Routledge, 2011). She is writing a monograph on social inequality in digital media history and culture entitled 'Workers Without Bodies: Race, Gender, and Digital Labor'. She is a co-facilitator for FemTechNet, an experiment in open feminist education (femtechnet.newschool.edu) and serves as the Coordinator and Student Advisor for the Digital Studies initiative in the Department of American Cultures at the University of Michigan.